Ten Song Drabbles
by tromana
Summary: 10 separate drabbles based on 10 different songs. Idea from WildDaisies10 and others . Jane/Lisbon.


**Title:** 10 Song Drabbles  
**Author: **tromana  
**Rating:** T  
**Characters:** Lisbon/Jane, Team  
**Spoilers:** None  
**Summary:** 10 separate drabbles based on 10 different songs. Stolen from WildDaises10. Jane/Lisbon.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Mentalist. Birthday present, please? I don't own the songs either, but they proved wonderful inspiration for very, very quick drabbles.  
**Notes: **Quite a few swear words in this one. Obviously I have more coarse language when I'm strapped for time.

**1. Many the Miles - Sara Bareilles**

He thought he lived for vengeance. Certainly, he had done so when he had initially applied for, and subsequently obtained employment at the CBI. No family left, no friends, just nightmarish visions, enormous guilt and an overwhelming desire to maim and kill the beast who had left him in this position.

Meeting the team had changed his life. Okay, he wasn't there yet, but for the first time in years he had friends.

Innocent, enthusiastic Grace Van Pelt, who would trust him to the end of the Earth if that was required of her.

The guys, Rigsby and Cho. Both so different, yet so similar. Capable men, happy to joke around with him, to be sucked in by his magic tricks.

And his boss, Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon. Seeing her smile was a personal daily highlight. Making her laugh was even better. And as for her more than occasional blush, well that was just wonderful.

Maybe one day he'd have travelled far enough away from the man on a bloodthirsty quest to trust himself with holding her in his arms.

**2. Nobody Listened - Delta Goodrem**

"Lisbon, listen to me," Jane's voice cracked as she pulled away. "You absolutely cannot go in there. It's a trap.""How do you know?""I just do."She released herself from his grip, pulled out her gun to acknowledge that she was at least listening to his concerns. Tears spilled from his eyes as she headed inside the abandoned factory, away from him and into inevitable danger.

He didn't want to live on the brink again, terrified that it was his fault that someone else could die again. It was a nightmare, back then. No wonder he had to be locked into the mental institution. No one there to listen to him crying, raging and trying to understand what had happened to him.

He couldn't go through that again. Lisbon was practically handing herself to Red John on a plate.

He chased after her.

**3. Better - Brooke Fraser**

"Oh Jane," Lisbon whispered, stroking his prone hand as he lay breathing rapidly on the stretcher. "You shouldn't have done that for me."

"Nonsense," he whispered.

Lisbon sighed heavily and stepped into the back of the ambulance after the paramedics had safely wheeled him in. There was so much she wished she could do for him. He was still broken, practically suicidal. Only that or a madman would throw themselves in front of a bullet on behalf of a more than capable cop.

He was obviously still hell-bent on destroying himself. And it hurt her like hell, too.

Any promise he made about saying he would behave, be sensible, stay safe… how could she believe him? She would give anything to help him, to make him better.

But she seriously doubted that she could do that.

**4. Ten Days - Missy Higgins**

"I can't do this anymore."

Jane nodded as Lisbon addressed him. Even when letting him down, her voice was laced with a quiet authority, putting him in his place. She was first and foremost his boss, no wonder she had never really felt comfortable with the idea of dating.

For ten days, Jane sulked at home. Or at least, his house. The office would be too full of… atmosphere. And her. It would have been hell being so close to her and not being able to envelop her in his arms, to kiss her forehead, to run his hands through her hair.

Lisbon had different coping mechanisms. She threw herself into work. Ignored all of Van Pelt's concerned glances and offers to talk. She appreciated the younger woman's sentiments, but Lisbon had just broken off the first relationship she had had for years over company bloody protocol.

"Go to him."

Van Pelt actually demanded it of her. And despite the fact that she was the most junior Agent in the team, Lisbon listened.

"Jane?"

"Oh God, Teresa?" Jane couldn't believe she was standing on his doorstep, virtually in tears. He embraced her gently and she didn't pull away. "I've missed you."

**5. Nine Million Bicycles - Katie Melua**

"This is nice," Lisbon observed as Jane poured her yet another glass of wine. "But if I wasn't so sure, I'd believe you were getting me drunk."

"Would I ever do something like that?"

"Yes, I believe you would."

Jane smiled and whisked her to his feet. There were 6 billion people living on the planet. Finding someone special amongst all those could be seen as quite an impossible task. He found it once, and lost it. To find it again, to feel like he was dancing through the stars, on a high from simple emotions was something he thought he would never find again.

He knew he loved Teresa Lisbon.

The only problem would be telling her.

**6. Bell Bottomed Tear - The Beautiful South**

_There's a tear, there's a tear. Not through confusion, through fear._

He scared her. Oh dear God he scared her. And she was meant to trust him. Every lead, every slight sniff of a chance of finding the man who had perpetrated such heinous crimes against his family he followed up voraciously.

But he was so gentle with her. He loved to make her smile and she was fairly certain that she made him happy too.

Then why did she feel such regret at going on a simple date with Patrick Jane?Maybe it was all down to the fear. Fear of what could happen to him, what could happen to her with a serial murderer determined to make Patrick Jane's life a misery. And what if he had to choose between completing the quest he had set himself all those years ago and what she thought he felt for her?

She wiped a singular tear from her eye before any of the others arrived in the office that morning. Irrational fears. They didn't have to sleep alone at night anymore.

Did they?

**7. The Winner Takes It All - ABBA**

Tears slid down Lisbon's cheek. They'd caught Red John and finally, finally he'd be tried for all those innocent people who he'd killed. Some for fun, some in vengeance. Most simply because he could and he loved running rings around the authorities. The bastard was finally going to pay.

Somehow it felt like a hollow victory.

She was normally pleased when they caught the bad guys, proud to see her team working together. Van Pelt being an ace on the computer, Cho being able to wheedle information out of the hardiest of suspects, and Rigsby stoically able to bring down their targets with ease. And Jane, working it all out in the first place.

Red John may now be behind bars, but he'd stolen Patrick Jane from them.

They'd functioned well as a team before Jane had joined, and Lisbon knew they could continue without him. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

**8. Breathe Slow - Alesha Dixon**

Lisbon took a deep breath as she headed towards Jane's couch. Whatever he'd done this team, he'd screwed up big-time. She had not only Minelli, but the Attorney General breathing down her neck. Again. None of the rest of the team had a clue what jaunt he'd been on this time. It was like having a kid working for the SCU.

She'd have torn all her hair out if she hadn't learned how to cope with the immature consultant by now. All she had to do, like usual, was keep cool, calm and collected whilst she berated him for the shit he'd landed the team in. She'd done this thousands of times before and was certain she'd have to do it a thousand times again.

Unfortunately, he just had to flash that 1000 watt smile and it made her go slightly weak at the knees. She was a grown woman, for goodness sake. She shouldn't be acting like a schoolgirl in front of him by now.

"Jane," she barked, her voice laced, at least she hoped, with rage. "What did you do to the suspect _this_ time?"

**9. Stone In My Shoe - Alisha's Attic**

Patrick Jane was a pain by anyone's standards. It was impossible to keep secrets from him and you threw up barriers in his way just to try and keep some privacy between you and him.

At least, that's what Lisbon thought.

He was like an unexploded bomb, you never knew when -- or if he'd go up. Yet there was something irrationally attractive about him. Lisbon thought it was something to do with her obsession for fixing things. For taking something broken and making it right again. But Jane was always going to be more difficult than that.

There was always going to be a flaw somewhere. You just couldn't trust him not to turn on you. If you fell, he would catch you - he proved as much. Lisbon still couldn't help but think that there would always be a catch though.

So she was determined not to let herself fall for that crazy pain in the ass of a consultant. It was safer that way. Didn't want to find the thorns after falling for the rose.

**10. I Can't Stay Away - the Veronicas**

Jane knew that he should stop playing Lisbon like a fool. But damn, it was fun. And he knew he should have realised that it was the anniversary of her mother's death and she was going to be in a particularly grouchy mood. He just had to go and push her that little too far, to send her storming into her office and refusing to answer to anyone - even Van Pelt, who she usually had the time of day for. After all, she did see the young rookie as being a bit of a protégé.

"Jane, you should have known better."

Yeah, it didn't help with the team layering on the guilt as well. Especially Van Pelt's round eyes filled with concern about her boss and the consultant they all loved and loved to hate.

He knocked on the door three times.

"Go away."Damn she'd been crying too.

"No."

God, she even looked beautiful in tears.


End file.
